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Regulators expected to require inspections sooner, and of more engines, than previously proposed

A National Transportation Safety Board investigator examines damage to the engine of the Southwest Airlines plane that made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport on April 17.
Photo:
/Associated Press

U.S. and European aviation regulators concurrently imposed emergency inspection requirements for the type of jet engine that broke apart in Tuesday’s fatal
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accident, calling for more engines to be scrutinized, on a faster timetable, than previously contemplated.

Accident investigators believe the engine in Tuesday’s accident broke apart because a fatigue crack on the interior part of a fan blade caused the component to separate, triggering an uncontained engine failure that spewed parts into the exterior of the plane, broke a cabin window and killed passenger Jennifer Riordan.

Unnerved by such an unusual sequence of events, regulators and industry officials have taken another look at safety and maintenance standards for the affected engine, the CFM56-7B, an industry workhorse that powers many
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737 jetliners.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it is requiring ultrasound inspection within 20 days for some older engines, the same day European air-safety regulators and the manufacturer issued their own regulations and guidelines.

The FAA requirements affect nearly 1,000 engines in the U.S. and Europe, roughly 150 of which have already been inspected, according to people familiar with the details.

The engine failure and emergency landing of Southwest Flight 1380 on Tuesday also has sparked discussions among regulators, industry officials and maintenance companies about potential broader changes to the current system for alerts when engine-inspection requirements are revised or enhanced, people familiar with the matter said.

Under the new FAA requirements, ultrasound inspections have to be completed on several hundred older engines within three weeks. The agency is considering requiring such inspections of up to an additional 2,000 newer engines by August.

The FAA intends to issue inspection requirements within the next week or two for all of the engines included in the manufacturer’s recommendations, according to a person familiar with its plans.

The regulatory activity comes as airlines and maintenance companies are already rushing to complete inspections amid increased workloads, the result of world-wide growth in air travel.

Prompted by a similar though nonfatal incident on a Southwest flight in 2016 the FAA had proposed, as recently as August, ultrasound inspections for about 200 engines.

Separately, on Friday Southwest Chief Executive Gary Kelly wrote to passengers from Tuesday’s Flight 1380, offering a $5,000 check and a $1,000 travel voucher, as what he called “a tangible gesture of our heartfelt sincerity.”

The two Southwest incidents were similar in that large sections of forward structures broke away from the engines. In both cases, blade rupture didn’t cause major damage to the components that attach the engines to the wings.

The FAA requirements call for ultrasound examination of designated engine fan blades that reach a specified number of trips. Airlines will have to replace blades that fail those checks.

Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told a media briefing Wednesday that blade cracks on the Southwest jet wouldn’t have been detected by visual inspections alone. Routine maintenance wouldn’t have caught the cracks either, he said.

The more-rigorous blade checks can be performed by engine makers, airline-owned repair shops or third-party service providers. Southwest said the engine that failed had been inspected over the prior weekend, though it had made around 10,000 flights since its previous major overhaul.

The requirements are complicated by the fact that in some cases, engines have fan blades of various ages that have experienced different numbers of takeoffs and landings.

It is unusual for the FAA, foreign regulators and aircraft and engine manufacturers all to issue safety directives and stepped-up inspection requirements in such a short period. However, if an issue is considered a top priority, or if regulators see an imminent hazard, the FAA can move within hours or days to impose safety mandates.

The latest Southwest accident has sparked discussions about more-effective procedures to highlight which engine-inspection changes should receive expedited regulatory action.

The prospect of additional inspections comes as aircraft repair shops are already dealing with a record amount of work. Such an inspection can take around 10 hours for each engine.

Airlines and engine makers said the extra work isn’t expected to result in cancelled flights or disruption to operations unless new problems are discovered. Under the new inspection mandate, airlines are each getting several months to inspect their entire fleets.

Aircraft engines have a life of over 20 years. The industry’s business model is similar to that of shaving razors: Manufacturers typically sell engines for little or no profit, with the bulk of their earnings generated from maintenance and repairs.

Safety checks, maintenance and repair of the global fleet of around 25,000 commercial aircraft sustains a business with revenue of over $75 billion last year. It is forecast to grow around 4% a year, according to consultant Oliver Wyman. Engine maintenance contributes more than 40% of the spending.

With the arrival of multiple new types of aircraft and engines, maintenance providers have backlogs leaving some customers waiting weeks for nonessential work, in part because of a tight labor market for experienced technicians.

“Capacity these days is very tight at most overhaul shops,” said Kevin Michaels, managing director of consultant AeroDynamic Advisory LLC.

Southwest said it contracts heavy maintenance and repair of its engines to GE, which in turn outsources some of the work to other firms.